A government employee in Odisha has landed in serious trouble after anti-corruption officials discovered that he had assets way beyond what he could afford on his salary. The man in question, Golap Chandra Hansdah, works as a Motor Vehicle Inspector (MVI) in Boudh district. When the Vigilance department raided his properties on Sunday, 3rd August, they uncovered shocking amounts of wealth, including 44 land plots, one kilogram of gold, and over ₹1.34 crore in bank deposits.
Properties across multiple locations
The raids were carried out at six locations in the state linked to Hansdah. Officials found one kg of gold, 2.126 kg of silver and bank deposits worth Rs 1.34 crore. A statement also revealed that he had spent ₹40 lakh on his daughter’s medical education.
Hansdah owned a two-storey house spread over 3,300 square feet in Baripada, Mayurbhanj district. Of the 44 plots in his name, 43 were around Baripada and one near Balasore town. The official sale deed value of these plots is about ₹1.49 crore, but the actual market value is suspected to be much higher. The Vigilance department is now assessing the true worth of these properties.
He also possessed 2.1 kg of silver and bank accounts with crores of cash. Hansdah, who joined government service in 1991, was promoted to Motor Vehicle Inspector in 2020 and currently draws a monthly salary of ₹1.08 lakh.
Many government officers in Odisha under scanner
Hansdah’s case may sound shocking, but it’s far from being the only one. Over the past few months, Odisha’s anti-corruption wing has uncovered a series of similar cases where government officers have been found living way beyond their means, owning large chunks of land, flats, and unaccounted wealth.
84 acres of land and multiple flats: The case of Dayanidhi Bagh
A high profile case was of Dayanidhi Bagh, a former Project Director of the Watershed department in Rayagada, who is now working as Joint Director in the Soil Conservation and Watershed Development office. When Vigilance officers searched his properties on 30th June, 2025, they were stunned to find that he had amassed 84 acres of land, the biggest land holding ever found by the Vigilance Department.
This included a 40-acre farmhouse with drip irrigation in Bijraguda and another 6-acre farmhouse in Phatakote. He also owned 27 acres of land elsewhere in Nabarangpur and 11 acres near Bhawanipatna. On top of this, three flats in Bhubaneswar and multiple buildings in Nabarangpur were traced back to him, along with a shopping complex and a new construction site.
The total worth of these properties runs into several crores. Officials also found gold, over ₹58 lakh in bank deposits, and even a four-wheeler registered in someone else’s name.
The long list of immovable properties does not end here. Three one-bedroom flats with an area of 1450 sq ft were traced from the officer at Gothapatana in Bhubaneswar, and one building was found at Housing Board Colony, a prime locality of the capital city.
Mr. Bagh is also constructing a building with an area of 3000 sq ft at Padalguda near Majhiguda Chhaka in Nabarangpur town, and he also has one shopping complex comprising five shops with an area of 1400 sq ft near Nabarangpur town.
Forest officer turned landlord with 115 Plots
In another jaw-dropping case, Odisha Forest Service officer Nityananda Nayak was found to have quietly acquired 115 land plots during his 33-year-long career. From protecting forests, Nayak seemed to have moved on to building a massive real estate empire.
His land buying spree started modestly, but picked up pace from 2007 onwards. During his posting in Khariar division, he acquired 64 plots. Then, between 2015 and 2022, he added 39 more, and another 10 after that, including two this year. Most of these plots are in Chhendipada area of Angul district, a region rich in coal, which hints at plans for big returns through land compensation.
He also built a four-storey building in Turanga, Angul, and many of the plots were found in the names of his wife and children, a common way to spread out ownership and avoid scrutiny. Vigilance officials now consider him one of the top offenders in the state’s list of corrupt officials.
105 plots and a market complex owned by Chief Construction Engineer
Another high-profile name is Pravas Kumar Pradhan, the Chief Construction Engineer of the Anandpur Barrage Project. Initially caught with 85 plots, officials later discovered 20 more in West Bengal’s Medinipur district, taking his total to 105 plots.
Pradhan had also built a five-storey building and owned a market complex, over ₹78 lakh in deposits, and nearly ₹12 lakh in cash. Gold worth around 335 grams was also recovered. Officials calculated that his assets were 245% more than his legal income.
How deep does the corruption go
When government officials on regular salaries manage to gather so much wealth, dozens of plots, multiple houses, gold, cash, shopping complexes, and vehicles, it raises serious questions about how deep corruption runs in the system. These cases are just the ones where officials got caught. One can only imagine how many more might have gone undetected, amassing unimaginable wealth without ever being questioned.
The list goes far beyond just 4 cases
In the last year alone, many other Odisha officials have been found to own huge amounts of land and disproportionate assets. Rama Chandra Mishra, Joint Commissioner of Excise in Bhubaneswar, was found to have ownership of 52 plots. Similarly, Pradeep Kumar Rath, Additional Chief Engineer of the Odisha Bridge and Construction Corporation (OBCC), had 50 plots belonging to him. He was booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
These tales present a disturbing picture of how some officials, with public service in their trust, have instead employed their offices to quietly construct private fiefdoms. And if these are just the ones that we are aware of, the real scale of the problem could be much larger.
